Recovery of organic acid from an impure process stream by addition of strong acid or salt thereof

摘要

This invention provides an improved process of recovering organic acid from an impure process stream, such as a fermentation broth, by the addition of a strong acid or salt thereof to the impure process stream. The process provides for essentially one step purification without the waste disposal problems or large capital investment required by either the conventional lime/sulfuric or solvent extraction recovery processes. The recovery can be further improved by treating the mother liquor remaining after separation of the citric acid crystals to obtain an additional yield. The preferred strong acid is sulfuric acid and the preferred mother liquor treatment is passage through an ion exclusion resin column.